Report: Obesity Costing Firms $45B a Year in Work Loss, Medical Costs
National News • April 10, 2008
The rate of obesity in the United States has doubled in the last 30 years, and those extra pounds weigh on companies' bottom lines, according to a new report from The Conference Board. Today, 34 ...
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Subject: I wonder
Posted On: April 10, 2008, 9:26 am CDT
Posted By: lastbat
Comment:
I'm all for adding wellness to the benefits package and for launching wellness initiatives in the workplace. The better you treat your employees the more likely you are to attract and retain good employees.
With that out of the way I wonder how they judged the cost of obesity. There are a number of conflicting studies out there regarding the cost of obesity to America and to business. I think we tend to focus on one issue and exclude any other causal factors. For instance, did they factor for obese smokers? Heavy drinkers (pun intended)? Risky behaviors? Family history? There are too many things that go into this for me to blindly accept that obesity along costs $45B a year.
But whatever the cost, it's still worth helping people stay in shape and stay healthy. I'd just rather we didn't try to mess it all up by throwing out numbers that may mean nothing.
Subject: I wonder
With that out of the way I wonder how they judged the cost of obesity. There are a number of conflicting studies out there regarding the cost of obesity to America and to business. I think we tend to focus on one issue and exclude any other causal factors. For instance, did they factor for obese smokers? Heavy drinkers (pun intended)? Risky behaviors? Family history? There are too many things that go into this for me to blindly accept that obesity along costs $45B a year.
But whatever the cost, it's still worth helping people stay in shape and stay healthy. I'd just rather we didn't try to mess it all up by throwing out numbers that may mean nothing.